Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 11 of Nawawi
Hadith number 11 of the collection of the 40 hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi, in faithful English translation.
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Updated on 07 October 2026 at 4:51 AM
📖 14 min readThis hadith belongs to the collection of the 40 hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him), the most studied hadith compilation in the world: foundations of faith, worship and character, all authentic narrations.
As for Abu al-Hourayra as-Sa'di, the most numerous say his name is Rabi'a ibn Chibban; an-Nasa'i and Ibn Hibban authenticated him, while Ahmad paused over the fact that this Abu al-Hourayra is named Rabi'a ibn Chibban, and inclined to distinguish the two men. And al-Jawzajani said: "Abu al-Hourayra is unknown, not identified."
This hadith is a fragment of a long hadith containing the mention of the qounout of the witr. And with at-Tirmidhi and others there is an addition in this hadith: "for the truth is serenity, and falsehood is disquiet." And the wording of Ibn Hibban: "for the good is serenity, and the evil is disquiet." Imam Ahmad reported it with a chain containing an unknown narrator, from Anas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Leave what makes you doubt for what does not make you doubt." And he reported it by another channel better than this one, in suspended form upon Anas. And at-Tabarani reports it from the narration of Malik, from Nafi', from Ibn 'Omar, in raised form. Ad-Daraqoutni said: "this hadith is reported only from the words of Ibn 'Omar, and of 'Omar; and it is reported from Malik as his own words."
And it is reported with a weak chain, from 'Outhman ibn 'Atta al-Khurasani, who is weak, from his father, from al-Hasan, from Abu Hourayra, that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to a man: "Leave what makes you doubt for what does not make you doubt." He said, "And how shall I have knowledge of that?" He said, "When you want a matter, lay your hand upon your breast: the heart stirs for the illicit and settles for the licit; and the pious Muslim leaves the small out of fear of the great." It is reported from 'Atta al-Khurasani in mursal form. And at-Tabarani reports the like with his chain, weak, from Wathila ibn al-Asqa', from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), adding: "It was said: and what is pious scruple (wara')? He said: the one who stops at the doubtful." And this saying is reported in suspended form upon a group of Companions, among them 'Omar, Ibn 'Omar (may Allah be pleased with them) and Abu ad-Darda. And Ibn Mas'oud said: "You aim at what makes you doubt, while around you four thousand things do not make you doubt?!"
And 'Omar said: "Leave the riba and the doubt (rayba)", meaning that in which you are unsettled, even without verifying that it is riba.
The sense of this hadith comes down to stopping at doubtful things and guarding against them: pure licit things bring the heart of the believer no disquiet, disquiet being anxiety and agitation; rather the soul settles in them and the heart grows calm in them. As for doubtful things, they bring the hearts anxiety and agitation that generate doubt.
Abu 'Abd ar-Rahman al-'Amri the ascetic said: "When the servant is pious, he leaves what troubles him for what does not trouble him." Al-Foudayl said: "People claim that pious scruple is excessive? Two matters never came to me without my taking the severer of the two: leave what makes you doubt for what does not make you doubt." Hassane ibn Abi Sinan said: "Nothing is easier than pious scruple: when a thing troubles you, leave it." And that is easy only for one like Hassane (may Allah have mercy on him).
Ibn al-Moubarak said: the young servant of Hassane ibn Abi Sinan wrote to him from the Ahwaz that the sugar cane had been struck by a blight: "so buy sugar in what awaits you." He bought it from a man, and scarcely had a short time passed when, behold, in what he had bought there was a profit of thirty thousand. The sugar man came and said, "O you there, my servant had written to me and I did not inform you; would you forgive me what I sold you?" The other said to him, "You have just informed me, and I have made it agreeable to you." He went back, but his heart could not bear it; he returned to him and said, "O you there, I did not want this transaction willingly: I wish you would take back this sale." And he kept pleading with him until he took it back.
Younous ibn 'Obayd, whenever he sought a commodity, would spend and send to buy, and say to the one who bought for him: inform the one you buy from that the commodity was sought. Hicham ibn Hassan said: Muhammad ibn Sirin let go of forty thousand in a matter for which you see no drawback today.
Al-Hajjaj ibn Dinar had sent food to Bassora with a man, and ordered him to sell it on the day of his arrival at the day's price. A letter reached him: "I arrived at Bassora and found the food little in demand, so I withheld it; the food rose in price, and I made such and such profit more." Al-Hajjaj wrote back to him: "You have betrayed us and acted contrary to what I commanded you; when my letter reaches you, give as alms to the poor of Bassora the entire price of this food: nothing remains for me but submission unless you do that."
And Yazid ibn Zouray' stood apart from five hundred thousand of his father's inheritance and did not take it, his father having administered affairs for the sultans. And Yazid worked palm fibres and lived on that until his death (may Allah have mercy on him). And al-Miswar ibn Makhrama had hoarded much food; he saw a cloud in autumn and disapproved of it, and said, "Do I not see myself hating what profits the Muslims?!" He vowed to take no profit from it, and 'Omar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) was informed, and said to him, "May Allah reward you with good."
Herein: it befits the hoarder to stand apart from the profit of what he has hoarded, hoarding being prohibited.
Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) made explicit standing apart from the profit of what had not entered into his guarantee, for that enters into profiting from what one has not guaranteed. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) forbade it: Ahmad said, in a narration about the man whose work was praised to him against his profit: "He gives the wind as alms." And he said, in a narration about the profit taken from the money of a partnership (mouzaraba): "If the partner contravenes it, he gives part of it as alms." And he said in a narration concerning the case of one who bought fruit before ripeness on condition of cutting it, then left it until ripe: "he gives part of it as alms," and in another narration of his, "in addition". And some of our companions heard it as recommended, for the alms of doubtful things is recommended.
It is reported from 'Aicha (may Allah be pleased with him? her) that she was asked about the pilgrim in ihram eating game, and she said, "They are only a few days: what troubles you, leave it", meaning whatever appears ambiguous to you, licit or illicit, leave it; for the people diverge over the lawfulness of eating game for the pilgrim when it was not he who hunted it.
By this one may argue that coming out of the divergence of the scholars is better, for it is further from doubt. But the realizers of knowledge, among our companions and others, hold that this is not absolute: for among the questions of divergence there are those in which a licence without counterpart was established from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him); following that licence takes priority over avoiding it, even should that licence not have reached certain scholars who abstained on that account.
And it is like the one who is certain of purity and doubts invalidity: it is authenticated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that he said, "let him not turn away until he hears a sound or finds a smell," especially if his doubt concerns the prayer: it is not permitted for him to interrupt it, the prohibition of that being authenticated, even if some scholars require it.
And if the licence has a counterpart, either of another sunna, or of the practice of the community against it, then the greater priority is to leave acting upon it. Likewise if atypical people have practised it, and the contrary practice has spread through the community in the cities of the Muslims since the era of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them): taking that upon which the Muslims have practised is what is determined, for this community has been preserved by Allah from the people of its falsehood prevailing over the people of its truth; that upon which practice became manifest in the three preferred centuries is the truth, and what is other than it is falsehood. And here there is a distinction to draw: refinement in stopping at doubtful things befits only the one whose every situation is upright, and whose deeds resemble one another in piety and scruple.
As for the one who falls into violating the manifest prohibitions and then wants to show himself scrupulous over some fine point of doubt: that is not bearable in him, rather he is reproached for it, as Ibn 'Omar said to the man of the people of Iraq who asked him about the blood of the mosquito: "They ask me about the blood of the mosquito, while they killed Houssayn, and I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: they are my two aromatic herbs of this world?!" And a man asked Bachir ibn al-Harith about a man who has a wife and whose mother orders him to repudiate her. He said: if he is good to his mother in everything and nothing remains of his goodness but the repudiation of his wife, let him do it; and if he is good to her by the repudiation of his wife and then rises and strikes his mother, let him not do it.
And Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked about a man who buys bulgur and demands the palm fibre, meaning the fibre with which the bunch of vegetables is tied. Ahmad said, "What are these questions?" It was said to him: it is because Ibrahim ibn Abi Nou'aym does that! Ahmad said, "If it is Ibrahim ibn Abi Nou'aym, then yes." It is like that. The one who blames such questions is the one whose situation is not alike; and as for the people of refinement in scruple, their situation is alike.
Imam Ahmad himself practised this scruple in his own person: he ordered the one who bought shortening from him, which he had carried on a paper, to order the paper returned to the seller. Imam Ahmad would not wet his pen from the inkwells of his companions, but went out with his own inkwell and wet his pen from it. A man asked his permission to write from his inkwell; he said: write, and it was an obscure scruple of his. Another man asked his permission, and he smiled and said, "My scruple and yours have not reached that degree!" He said it in humility; otherwise he practised this scruple in himself. And he blamed it upon the one who did not reach that rank, yet showed himself easygoing in apparently blameworthy matters and moved towards doubtful things without stopping.
His words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "for the good is serenity, and the evil is disquiet," mean that in the good the hearts grow calm in the face of ambiguity, and the evil breeds disquiet in them, and one finds no calm in it. Herein is an allusion to the turning back to the hearts in the face of ambiguity, and more of this will come in the commentary of the hadith of "An-Nawwas ibn Sam'an", Allah the Most High willing.
Ibn Jarir reports from his chain, from Qatada, from Bachir ibn Ka'b that he recited this verse, "Walk therefore upon its shoulders," then said to his servant girl: if you know what its shoulders are, you are free for the face of Allah. She said: its shoulders are its mountains. As though it were breathed into his face, and he released his servant; he asked the people: some commanded him, others forbade him; he asked Abu ad-Darda, who said, "The good is serenity, the evil is disquiet: cast aside what troubles you for what does not trouble you."
His words in the other version, "for the truth is serenity, and falsehood is disquiet," indicate that one must not rely on the word of every speaker, as in the hadith of Wabsa: "and let the most discerning of people give you his opinion, and let him give you his opinion"; rather one relies on the word of the one who speaks the truth. The sign of the truth: the hearts grow calm in it; the sign of falsehood: there is disquiet in it, the hearts do not settle in it, but turn away from it. From this, the people of reason in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), when they heard his words and that to which he called, knew that he was truthful and had come with the truth; and when they heard the words of Moussaylima, they knew he was a liar come with the false. It is reported that 'Amr ibn al-'As heard, before his Islam, that it was pretended to descend upon him: "O wild goat, O wild goat!! To you two ears and a chest, and you know, O 'Amr!" He said, "By Allah, I know that you lie!"
An Ancient said: picture in your heart what you wish, and reflect upon it, then compare it with its opposite: when you distinguish between the two, you know the true from the false, the sincere from the liar. He said: as if you pictured Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and reflected on what he brought of the Quran, and read, "Do they not see the creation of the heavens and the earth, the alternation of night and day, the ships that sail the sea for the profit of the people, the water Allah sends down from the sky reviving the earth thereby after its death, spreading in it every manner of beast, and the veering of the winds and the clouds subjected between heaven and earth: signs for a people who reason," and then you picture the opposite of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and find Moussaylima, and reflect on what he brought, and read, "Ho! O you, the lady of the chamber... the bed is prepared for you," which is his saying to Sajah when he married her, and you see this one, the Quran, of an astonishing solidity that mingles with the heart and beautifies the hearing, and you see that one, the word of Moussaylima, cold, frivolous, infamous: you know that Muhammad is in the truth, come with the revelation, and that Moussaylima is a liar come with the false.